Almost everything you need to know about the importance of characters in of mice and men can be determined through the way they look and what people say about them.

I will talk about one of the main characters, Lennie.
Lennie is described in the book as ‘large’ and ‘simple minded’ man, in the book, it is evident that Lennie ha some sort of mental deficiency, this idea is also reinforced in an early part of the book, where Lennie’s friend and carer: George talks to him:
“If he finds out what a crazy bastard you are, we won’t get no job”. George is certain that if the ranch owner that they are trying to get employment from finds out that Lennie is mentally retarded, they will be discriminated against and will not get hired.

Another character whose importance can be shown by the way they look and what people say about them is Curley.

Curley is described by numerous ranch workers as ‘handy’ and ‘aggressive’ by some of the ranch workers, this is because he is a boxer, but he also is quite short, which could mean that he has Napoleon’s syndrome, which is were people with a smaller stature want to seem powerful by being aggressive.

However, how characters look and people say about them is not enough to determine their importance, there are other factors like what the characters say themselves and how they behave, for example, in many occasions, Lennie will always talk about ‘tending the rabbits’ which is his dream job when him and George are finally successful, which shows how simple Lennie really is.

Simon, on the mountain, voices his defiance against the mountain, the worldly predator that he felt was out to get him.
This feature is known as ‘personification’. the link between this small detail and the big idea of the power of nature is that mountains are recognised as powerful forces of nature, almost godlike, that they are alive and thinking and their sole purpose in their existence is to take the lives of those brave (or stupid) enough to attempt to climb them, because to reach the top means to conquer them, and these big and proud monsters do not want to be conquered. When Simon says “it wasn’t taking me as well” he is talking about how the mountain is attempting to get revenge for Simon and joe conquering it. However, Simon is refusing to be taken by this beast and this tells us something about Simon, that he is very determined to win, that he is competitive even against a powerful force such as a mountain.

She aExplain some of the thoughts and feelings Claire Francis has during the storm.

I this extract from her book, the first thing she felt was unprepared from another blow by gale force winds, which seemed to take her completely by surprise, another thing she felt was exhausted, this was because of the daunting physical task of changing sails throughout the night, which is hard enough to do in calm weather, let alone in a storm.

She also talks about how she went below deck to search for dry clothes, which she failed to do, as all the clothes she found were soaking wet, at this moment, Claire would likely be feeling frustrated or even angry or defeated, because she would of have been hoping to put on some dry warm clothes, but after finding only wet ones, it would probably frustrate her.

Claire also mentions that at one point, she lay in a state of mental paralysis, this is usually used to describe depression, but in this case, it likely means that she tried not to think of anything and ignore the dire situation she was in.

She also felt strong dismay, as she got her hopes up high at the sight of clear skies, only to have the winds blow stronger than ever, causing her more distress and frustration.

Explain how the headline and picture are effective and how they link to the text.

The Headline :’Up, Up and Away; the day armchair travel really took off’ is effective because of the way it is written in the article and the text itself.

an Obvious attention grabber would be that it is written in bold writing in the article, which makes it easier to spot, also, the position of the headline, at the top of the article, usually makes it the first thing to be read by a reader, it is linked to the text because it is the main topic of the article, and basically sums it up in a brief and witty manner.

The picture, is a picture of distant shot of a man in an armchair, floating over the channel with balloons attached, the reason that it is effective is because it is very colorful, this will draw the readers attention to it for a number of seconds, it is also effective because it is immediately related to both the headline and the actual article, it is also easily recognizable and along with the headline, can sum up the article, as the famous cliffs of Dover are visible in t he picture, along with some of the channel, the location of the picture is found, and links to the text as the area of the channel, Dover Cliffs, and Dunkirk are mentioned in the text and all located near the area visible in the picture.

What do you learn from Ben Leach’s article about the issues and concerns regarding the building of wind farms?

From Ben Leach’s article, We can learn that the building of new wind farms can potentially ruin beauty spots where they are built, ruining views and landscapes in large areas which has called for more rules on where wind farms can and cannot be built.

The Wind farms are not only destroying the iconic views of the areas they are built, but they also pose a major environmental impact, as the turbines can kill many birds ever year.

In Cornwall, there is an area that is famous because of it’s scenery and views, however the placement of wind farms could ruin the areas natural beauty.

Another issue is that with the looming threat of climate change and the diminishing numbers of available resources, wind farms are said to be needed to provide renewable energy sources, and while the natural beauty of the areas affected by wind farms is important, the positives of the farms are said to outweigh the negatives of the blighting of beauty spots.

Compare the different ways in which language is used for effect in the two texts, give some examples and analyse the effects. (Storm at sea & Source 1)

In source 1, the newspaper article about wind farms, the first thing you can notice is that the style of writing is very formal, the effect of this is that it will usually attract readers with a large or sophisticated vocabulary.

Another way in which language is used in Source 1, is through the use of special political and economical terms, such as ‘Campaigners, local council, conservationists’, the effect of the use of these words further attracts readers who are interested in politics.

Newspaper cliches are also seen in the article, such as “Environmentalists have ‘called for’ a change…”
“experts have said…”
Using these cliches are commonplace and easily understood by the reader, they usually prevent misunderstanding by the reader.

In the extract from the book ‘Storm at Sea’

Language will be used for effect more than a newspaper article would.
The book is in no way formal, and uses more descriptive language than the article, such as using her feelings to describe her situation, like ‘exhausted’, she also uses the cliche ‘full of anticipation’, the effect of using these words and sentences is that readers will recognize these features clearly, and can even relate to them at points, this can draw readers into the book more if they can relate to a point made from own experience, using descriptive words also makes the book more ‘colorful’ as in, it is nicer to read and is not boring.

Anti climax is also seen in the text, when the author was saying how she was certain that the sky would become clear and the wind would drop, building up anticipation, only to have the winds blow stronger than before, which deflated the hope she may have had before.

How do Shakespeare and Plath show the strength of the feeling of women?

(INTRO):In both ‘The taming of the Shrew’ and Poems by Sylvia Plath, we see that the feelings of women are very strong, however, we can see that Shakespeare cannot accurately portray the feelings and thoughts of women as much as Sylvia Plath as she is actually a woman.

Sylvia Plath uses strong violent imagery to portray feelings, while Shakespeare uses a strong minded yet somewhat quiet character, another comparison between the two authors is that while they both use certain language devices, for example, when important characters in Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’ speak, they use iambic pentameter, however in Sylvia Plath’s play ‘Daddy’, she uses the ‘oo’ sound a lot, E.G: two, you, who, while this ‘sound’ is quite noticeable, the Iambic pentameter is hard to notice unless you pay attention to the lines.

Some Dramatic devices are also noticeable in Both Authors pieces, for example, in Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’, She uses very violent and offensive imagery, referring to her father as a ‘Nazi’ and herself as a ‘Jew’, and using very ‘Nazi’ era references, however, in Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’, Katherina uses the power of her mind to ‘backchat’ to Petruchio, her sister and her father a number of times.

Sylvia Plath’s Poems and Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the shrew’ are laid out in completely different ways, because the ‘Taming of the shrew’ was a Play and not a poem, the poems were laid out in short paragraphs, sometimes with various rhymes and other poetic devices, whereas, the ‘Taming of the Shrew’ simply used lines from the characters, there was no particular layout in the way that they spoke.

In the beginning of the play, we see insulting behaviour from both Katherina and Petruchio, this is in the form of a ‘sparring match’ with insults.

Petruchio uses various sexual innuendos and normal insults when he is insulting Katherina, for example;

when Petruchio calls Katherina a wasp, she replies with “if I be waspish, best beware my sting”.

Katherina also states that Petruchio doesn’t know where a wasps sting lies, Petruchio says what it is in his tail and Katherina replies with: “in his tongue” and “yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell”,

to which Petruchio replies with:”what? With my in your tail?, this is a clear sexual innuendo as he is implying that he wants to commit an act of oral sex, this type of insult is much cruder and blunt than Katherina’s smart and indirect comebacks, this is one of the reasons why Petruchios and Katherinas behaviour is not comparable.

Another reason for this is the insulting behaviour Petruchio has in other parts of the play, for example, when katherina and Petruchio are married and they go to petruchios household, Petruchio is rude and bullies the servants over petty things, such as how cooked the meat is, he is also violent and cruel, he repeatedly strikes his servants and forbids katherina from eating and sleeping, this is another reason why petruchios and Katherinas behaviour is not comparable, katherina, although strong minded and independent she is a very reasonable person, she is also noticeably more quiet as the play progresses, speaking only in protest of petruchios behaviour, Petruchio believes that’s Katherina is some ‘wild animal’ to be tamed.